The invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring, managing, and diagnosing information systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for designing and modeling information systems.
With the advent of electronic computing, businesses have used computers to track the flow of business information, such as for the flow of trading orders through a stock exchange. The system of computer hardware and software components used for tracking, processing, and recording this information is referred to as an information system. Along with the development of information systems, managers of these systems have developed processes and application software for monitoring the information system itself. With the development of more advanced information systems and the ongoing development of modern commerce, information systems become very large and more complex and may often suffer from inefficiencies or xe2x80x9cbottlenecksxe2x80x9d that slow or even stop the information system. Monitoring and diagnostic software for information systems has been developed to monitor large information systems and assist managers of the information system in determining solutions to make the systems more efficient. Current monitoring systems generally only identify bottlenecks or help determine where in the information system additional resources, such as additional computing hardware or storage devices, may be needed.
Known monitoring systems generally are not capable of creating a model of a new information system that accurately models all the data, as well as hardware, software, and business processes, when an existing system to be modified does not already exist. A model of a new information system may be implemented with many different combinations of hardware and software applications, such as different types of software database applications, each combination resulting in different performance characteristics. An object of the invention is to allow designers of new information systems to determine which combination is most advantageous.
Another object of the invention is to provide an initial model of a new information system based on descriptive input provided by a user. Another object is to provide additional models of an information system different from the initial model, which a designer can compare based on the performance of all the models in order to select a preferred model. Yet another object is to provide a number of computed performance metrics that show the performance of the model. Still another object of the invention is to provide a library of hardware and software component models that a designer can use to compare information system models based on different hardware and software combinations.
The invention achieves the above objects by providing systems and methods for designing information systems. An information system designer provides descriptive input about a proposed information system and its architecture, and the information design system of the invention converts the descriptive input into quantitative input. The information design system uses the quantitative input to construct an initial model of a proposed information system, as well as additional models that are variations on the initial model. Performance metrics are calculated for all of the models. The designer then examines the initial model and additional models to select a model to use for implementing the information system, or decides that additional models are needed, in which case the designer requests additional variations on the initial model or changes the assumptions in the descriptive input to initiate a new round of modeling.
In one aspect of the invention, the invention relates to as a system for designing an information system. The system includes an input module for receiving descriptive input about a proposed information system, a construction module for constructing an initial model and additional models of the information system, a performance metrics module for calculating performance metrics for the models, and an output module for outputting the models and their performance metrics. In one embodiment, the input module derives validated input from the descriptive input, and the construction module derives quantitative input from the validated input. In another embodiment, the output module provides a comparison of the models based on the performance metrics, and a designer selects one of the models as a preferred information system design. In another embodiment, the system includes a library including models of hardware and software components, and the construction module uses hardware and software component models selected from the library when constructing the information system models. In a further embodiment, the construction module calibrates the information system models by comparing estimates of performance based on the models with benchmarks from the library. In further embodiments, the system provides performance metrics for an elongation factor, an aging ratio, an efficiency curve, an efficiency ratio, a degradation ratio, and other metrics.
In another aspect, the invention features a method for designing an information system. The method includes receiving descriptive input about processes and data expected to be used in said information system, transforming the descriptive input into quantitative input, constructing an initial model of said information system based on the quantitative input, creating one or more additional models derived from the initial model, calculating performance metrics for the models, and providing the models and their performance metrics as output. In one embodiment, the method includes validating the descriptive input to produce validated input and transforming the validated input into quantitative input. In a further embodiment, the method includes comparing the performance metrics for the models and selecting one of the models as a preferred information system design. In another embodiment, the method includes providing a library of hardware and software components, selecting one or more of the components to use in a model, and creating one or more models based on the selected components. In a further embodiment, the method includes calibrating one or more models by comparing estimates of performance values from the models with benchmarks from the library. In one embodiment, the method includes calculating performance metrics for an elongation factor, an aging ratio, an efficiency curve, an efficiency ratio, a degradation ratio, and other metrics.